Game & Poultry

September 17, 2017

Everyone should have in their arsenal a low maintenance, throw together type of soup that you can make in your flannels while chugging away on your laptop.

This is ‘the one’ for me. It's insanely delicious & needs nothing more than a whole chicken (defrosted), onion, salt, pepper, eggs & lemons. Chuck the chicken in a pot with copious amounts of water, cook the orzo in the broth and finish with lemon and eggs.

I love that getting the pot on the stove gives me straight 1 hour – 15 minutes before I even have to mess with it. That means I get to do some serious paperwork in that time or watch 2 episodes of Grace & Frankie on Netflix. Either way, a win all around!

On most days we have these staples handy or in my case a teenager who often runs across to the store so I can make the soup at the 11th hour and don’t have time to defrost said chicken.

If you’re thinking about how just exactly a handful of ingredients can render a soup so yummy, you’ll just have to take my word for it. It’s on my weekly rotation especially when cool weather descends and reminds me of the scotch broth soup my favorite Parsi restaurant would serve growing up. The only deviation being adding delicious cubed fried croutons & using barley instead of orzo.

Perhaps that’s why I crave this soup so much – it takes me back to my childhood, of memories with my parents rambling along the street on a Sunday in their Jonquil colored Fiat. If you don’t know what Jonquil is, look it up – it’s that shade of yellow, that’s right between a lemon & a banana just like the fragrant flowers whose name it takes after.

July 08, 2017

Love a good chicken dish for sopping up loads of delicious gravy with crust bread? Then look no further.

Cook this Basque style chicken and it will leave you in a state of euphoria!

This Basque chicken uses just the most delicious set of ingredients – chicken legs – for that juicy dark meat, delicious smoked Spanish chorizo sausage, bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, herbs, smoked paprika, FINO sherry (a classic and one I consider a staple in my pantry) & topped off with artichoke hearts. All of this comes together in just a fantastic medley of flavors that will leave you begging for more.

An added advantage – want to perfect your searing skills? This one does that and then some.

First off you’ve got get that chicken dry just so with kitchen towels. Next, sear the chicken in hot olive oil for 6-7 mins on each side. Cover the pan with parchment paper so it keeps the chicken nice and juicy allowing the chicken to sear without steaming into a watery mess.

Now don’t prod it, touch it, poke it or turn it over for those 6-7 minutes on each side and you’ve got some seriously delicious golden chicken. Once you get that right, you’re on your way.

Such a good dish for a party and feeds a crowd. Hope you love it as much as I do!

February 18, 2017

When most of us think of Peruvian cuisine, it’s usually the POLLO that we get from the lovely Peruvian chicken stores all over town – roasted with yucca fries and those lovely sauces. We made it in our kitchen and you’ll find that here –

But today we’re doing something a little bit different. Ají de gallina (hen) is a dish that consists of a creamy spicy sauce made of the most interests set of ingredients. Not the usual when you think Peruvian food - Chicken or hen if peviously cooked and then shredded up.

The sauce is lovely with hard aged shredded cheese, walnuts, and bread soacked up in evaporated milk.

The Mexican tea herb epazote, performs the same role as beano, asafoetida and omum seeds in Indian cuisines - aids in digestion and adds yet another layer of flavor to the dish.

Traditionally, the pineapple is stewed along with the meat but I prefer to use canned and add it at the very end for a flavor burst because quite honestly I cannot stand the taste of limpy cooked pineapple. I think you'll agree.

Though warmer weather has begun to descend upon us and I know you think you’re over stews, give this a last shot and sneak this one in your menu rotation. It won’t disappoint!

You really will love the burst of flavors and textures that comes from this intensely flavorful comfort stew. And for those of us who love our chicken, we can all do with a fun and flavorful way to serve up the good ole chook!

October 14, 2016

Those concrete vertical slabs reaching out to touch the sky like the Pruitt Igoe settlements – endless rows of them. In the belly surrounded by steel and concrete jazzy sky scrapers in the heart of down town.

The taxi drive dropped me off at my hotel and so began the hunt for food. I ventured into the hawker centers and soon was confronted with a big sign that read PIG ORGAN SOUP. The next several years would prove that with that sign, what you saw was what you got!

So if it weren’t for the Chicken Rice stall down the line, I would have probably starved. And so began my love affair with Chicken Rice that haunts both hubby and me to this day.

At the heart of this dish is the stock. Bad stock, bad dish. So y'all had better head HERE for that recipe! Part 1 folks!

Once you’ve got the stock going which ideally should be made the previous day, the next thing to do is to boil the chicken in it, then use that stock to prepare the rice, a lovely garlicky and chilli sauce and serve all together. {Rice & Sauces in the next post peeps so hold your horses!}

I think this is a lovely weekend meal and just might steal a place in your heart too.

October 07, 2016

I still remember my first taxi ride from Changi airport towards Singapore CBD like it was just yesterday. Those concrete vertical slabs reaching out to touch the sky like the Pruitt Igoe settlements – endless rows of them. In the belly surrounded by steel and concrete jazzy sky scrapers in the heart of down town. For those who don’t know Pruitt–Igoe was a large urban housing project first occupied in 1954 in the U.S. city of St. Louis, Missouri and is far from considered a humanized example of urban living.

Needless to say, I’ve never been a big fan of the HDB projects but I digress. The taxi drive dropped me off at my hotel and so began the hunt for food. I ventured into the hawker centers and soon was confronted with a big sign that read PIG ORGAN SOUP. The next several years would prove that with that sign, what you saw was what you got!

So if it weren’t for the Chicken Rice stall down the line, I would have probably starved. And so began my love affair with Chicken Rice that haunts both hubby and me to this day.

At the heart of this dish is the stock. Bad stock, bad dish.

And to get the best stock, you want it rich in gelatin – hence I turn to the cheap and ugly. Namely, chicken feet and chicken necks. A packet of each easily available at the Asian market is God sent to good flavorful stock.

Once you’ve got the stock going which ideally should be made the previous day, the next thing to do is to boil the chicken in it, then use that stock to prepare the rice, a lovely garlicky and chilli sauce and serve all together.

So you see at the heart of it all, is truly the stock.

I think this is a lovely weekend meal and just might steal a place in your heart too.

September 30, 2016

This luscious meal includes all those ingredients we love – butter, heavy cream, chicken & tarragon. Right there, 4 ingredients and you know it’s going to be good!

As y’all probably know by now, chicken breasts is my least favorite part of the chicken. It nearly always cooks dry so I usually love thigh meat and chicken wings.

But there 2 exceptions, either cooking the breasts as paillards on high temperature or poaching them. In this case we jazz up carton chicken stock with some veggies and herbs to give it a fresh flavor and poach the chicken until just cooked.

Slice up against the grain at a diagonal which guarantees none of those long stringy fibers as we chew. The velouté sauce which just as the name suggests is pure velvet with its rich creamy texture & fresh tarragon drizzles atop the chicken is lovely.

Here’s one for company, or just dinner at home. I can vouch for one thing, kids will love this too! I taught this one to my high schoolers for summer camp and they raved!

This is one recipe where the crème de la crème is quite simply, the crème!

September 23, 2016

I can't vouch for that because I grew up loving chicken liver in so many forms. My mum used to make a delicious sauteed with tomatoes that was taught to her by my grand father and chicken liver Pâté was our party staple.

It brings back old great memories of lovely parties my parents would throw; the scent of fresh flowers, rich silk cushions and the music room all done up for the evening.

Pâté is ridiculously easy to make - provided you don't skimp on the butter. Traditionally the quantity of liver to butter is equal. Think on that for a moment & all the ensuing hours sweating in the gym!

But in my experience, you can get away with using half that and still end up with that luscious texture we love. Go less than that and you compromise on flavor and taste.

So if you're going to make Pâté, just remember, you're not eating the whole bowl so make it an occasion and enjoy!

September 09, 2016

I must admit that this is one of the most robust and beloved soups to come out of our kitchen.

There are myriad versions of this soup all over the internet, some with fried tortillas some with chicken chunks and cream and some with no spices.

My version is most definitely inspired by our years in the Southwest and that means this chicken tortilla soups has full and vibrant flavors, the scent of cumin as it wafts through the air and the absolutely essential earthy l flavor of cornmeal as I try to capture the incredible flavor of Arizona masa.

The combination of cornmeal and spices is pure magic and the thick strips of corn tortillas, soaked with with the soup is marvelous. You'll find this soup so hearty and so comforting that I doubt you'll take it off your meal rotation.

Not to mention how easy it all is with rotisserie chicken and canned black beans. As for us, we're belly full and hooked!

January 29, 2016

It's been 5 days since Snowmageddon 2016 buried our region in over 30" of snow.

Shoveling and wading through waist high snow is not something any of us are going to forget any time soon. Schools have been closed all week and offices are only just now getting back to kind of normal work schedules. Personally with mountains of snow piled high on road sides, traffic reduced to single lanes and treacherous right and left turns, staying home in my jammies sounds like a really good idea.

The point is, with all this snow around I haven't quite been able to get my head out of a bowl of Soup.

I mean soup sound pretty good right about now. But with all that shoveling, I want something simple, uncomplicated and nutritious.

This traditional soup is simple and lovely and depending on whom you ask you'll get little tweaks - Like oh! I add bacon in mine or I saute my leeks in butter...or not - that sort of thing. The version I love, includes all the high points - leeks sautéed in butter with bacon, simmered with a whole chicken to make a robust delicious stock and finished with just a handful of rice, chopped parsley and..... wait for it - thinly sliced prunes!

The prunes are magic in the soup - a morsel of natural sweetness in every bite, not to mention a lovely golden brown hue it adds to the soup.

Did I mention, this soup wants for a solid 2 hours of simmering affording the opportunity of more snow shoveling (sigh) or reruns of Downton Abbey!

I know what I'd prefer, but whatever your reason I'd put this 5 ingredient soup on my winter must make list!

December 19, 2015

For those of you who are wondering if I've got a screw loose, posting a rich Indian chicken 'kari' the weekend before Christmas, I'm blaming it on the office holiday potlucks.

This week I made this chicken in enormous batches for both Mr Hubby's and my office holiday potlucks. It was a hit and between the two of us we've ended up with so many recipe requests, that I'm compelled to get working on it this morning.

A shout out especially to Barb, who wants to make this for her family on Dec 23rd!

Chicken Jalfrezi is chicken cooked in its own juices with vegetables such as green bell pepper, red bell pepper & cilantro in a rich gravy with tomatoes and spices.

Once you've got the the masala pastes made in the blender and cut up the vegetables, the rest is easy! It requires a slow and long simmer for about an hour for delicious results.

I've always made this when I need to make huge batches of chicken for a party and it never fails!

August 21, 2015

Today marks the last of my kids culinary camps for the summer. This one in the company of kids from ages 7-1/2 to 12 and what a week it has been!

We cooked everything from maple french toast to raspberry shortbread and had such a fun time. I've just had the sweetest kids at camp this summer so as much as I'm happy that things will calm down a little, I hope I'll be seeing them again.

Speaking of which, you've heard me go on and on about my summer so I will bore you no more.

It has however meant that some things have gotten wayside. As much as I try to believe I'm succeeding at juggling all the balls I've thrown in the air, lately it seems some have invariably fallen and rolled into a ditch somewhere.

This website is a perfect example of this. So here's me trying to get that ball up in the air once more.

Needless to say, healthful meals in a jiffy are pretty much a norm around here on busy nights. And these delightful roasted Cornish hens is a perfect example of just that!

This dish is inspired by a traditional French dish where the chicken is roasted with a similar blend of mustard and herbs and then finished with a thick topping of fresh breadcrumbs.

It's very much on point except for the fact that I've replaced the chickens with the cornish hens & altogether disposed of the bread crumbs. I mean who needs those anyway?

I'd rather have a mustard herb topping all glistening out of the oven over a crusty breading any day. Wouldn't you?

So I do hope you'll give these a go. Super easy to put together and quite delicious and refreshingly flavorful.

August 01, 2015

I've been a bit absent lately but I figured that if you've been doing this as long as I've been, you as my readers know I'm going to surface sooner or later.

The problem has been, that summer has been passing before my eyes at warp speed.

It's a bit scary when in your minds eye, you've already gone through summer and are already in Fall because of all the things that you've got lined up between now and then.

I am only just surfacing after the two week marathon teaching my wonderful middle and high school kids at the culinary summer camps.

Wonderful as it has been, the next day, I could barely haul myself out of bed and napped for 6 hours after a good night's sleep.

And the next day. And then it was Sunday!

But there are places to go and things to do so there is no time stand still for busy moms like me. We just keep on, going on.

So If we haven't been doing takeaway, I hate to admit, we've been throwing things on the grill or fixing one-dish meals like this one.

Turns out its pretty much what the Spanish are doing on week nights as well, while they're as busy as we are...well they probably have a more balanced perspective to life with their 3 hours lunches and what not....but never the less, this dish comes out of home grown comfort food for busy nights.

Takes nearly no active preparation, requiring overnight marinating..which is super easy unless you're watching your chicken marinate, and minimal active time on the stove, a bit of oven time & it's as easy as it gets on busy week nights.

And did I mention beer? Chicken marinated in spices and beer. How can you ever go wrong with that one?

As always, its crusty bread and salad for busy night to go with. But if you've got a bit of free time, the patatas alo pobre that we fixed a few weeks ago would go marvelously well.

Enjoy!

PS: Turns out, blogging done in a daze results in pics missing, the realization of which hits AFTER the dish is gobbled up. Oopsy!

Recipe for

Pollo a la Cerveza

Shopping list - Serves 4

1 qty 3-4 lb chicken cut up at the joints (ask the butcher to do this)

Chicken: Wash and wipe to dry completely with paper towels or kitchen towels

Onion: Peel the onions and discard the ends. Dice into ½” pieces and add to a large mixing bowl

Garlic: Crush and roughly chop.

In the large mixing bowl, add the chicken, mustard, paprika, salt, onions and garlic. Rub all over the chicken. Pour the beer and combine. Remove to a zip-loc bag and store in the refrigerator overnight until ready to cook.

The next day: Preheat the oven to 375 deg F.

Onion: Peel the onions and discard the ends. Dice into ½” pieces and add to a large mixing bowl

Garlic: Crush and roughly chop.

Bell pepper: Cut off the woody top and discard membranes and seeds. Dice and set aside.

Method:

Heat the olive oil on medium heat in a heavy bottom sauté pan or chicken fryer at least 3” deep.

Sauté the onions, peppers and garlic with ½ tsp salt for 7-10 minutes until soft.

Add the chicken, marinade, 1 tsp salt and tomatoes and stir to combine.

Cover with a tight fitting lid and bake for about 45-60 minutes until the chicken is tender and cooked.

Return to stove and evaporate some of the liquid if a thicken gravy is desired. Taste and adjust seasonings. Serve with crusty bread. Enjoy!

June 20, 2015

I mean really excited because it takes 30 minutes from start to finish and tastes like you've been slaving at the stove for hours.

Shhh...let this be our little secret!

So I must admit, that for that very reason alone (not withstanding it's amazing deliciousness) it has made an appearance for at least two dinners when company has come over.

And once again at it's heart are the quality of ingredients.

1) Buy smoked Spanish (imported) Paprika before you make this. Trust me, you'll be sorely disappointed if you pull out that stale old McCormick from the pantry.

2) A trip to Total Wine or one of your other big wine stores will be required to hook you up with Spanish fino sherry.

Which now brings me to my spiel about sherry. Sorry, you'll just have to suffer through it....'coz it's important.

Sherry to be called as such, Jerez can only be made in one place, the area lying between Jerez de la Frontera, Puerto de Santa María and San Lucar de Barrameda in the province of Cádiz.

The secret is the combination of soil (the chalky, crumbly, moisture-retaining while marl) & the damp climate which encourages the growth of the flor (a coat of yeast that forms on the aging wine and prevents it from oxidising)

For this dish, we're sticking with what the Spaniards prefer; the bone-dry, crystal-clear fino. Other types of Sherry include oloroso, manzanilla, palo cortado, and the very sweet Pedro Ximenez which is also known as the beloved Christmas Sherry.

So once you've got your paprika and sherry in place, the rest is easy peasy. The chicken gets marinated in healthy doses of the paprika, the garlic cloves, skin on and all, is seared in hot olive oil which bt the way is a wicked easy way of roasting garlic.

The chicken is then seared in the same pan to which sherry is added and simmered until it cooks.

Which then brings us to final herb topping where roasted peeled garlic cloves and mushed up with parsley in a food processor and spread over the chicken in the last few minutes.

Olden times, we'd be pulling out the mortar and pestle for this last step but I think a few whizzes in the trusted food processor, does the trick pretty quick without the hassle.

See what I mean...nothing easier than this chicken. And oh so! incredibly delicious especially with a side of the poor mans potatoes we whipped up the other day.

June 08, 2015

And the fact is, if it weren't for Amazon.com, it is unlikely it would've seen the light of day.

Before you go off on me, no I do not own any stock in Amazon & I have no doubt some watch dog group somewhere will have a lot to educate me about their perceptive on unfair business practices etc. I await with baited breath. not.

All that aside, I am humbly referring to the fact that that I can now finally buy the ever essential black mint Huacatay online on amazon.com. Hence, here and now of all times comes this incredibly flavorful chicken.

And of course as with most flavorful moist meats & smoky chile pastes, the marinade and overnight marinating in citrus etc is key...all that food chemistry going to work, hammering away at the proteins as it sits.

The good news at the end of the 24 hours, you now have 3 options on how to cook the chook!

a) If you have a rotisserie spit, more power to you 'coz it's the way to go.

b) Broil (and yes only broil) it in the oven which is how I've done it for this pic.

c) Throw it on the grill. It is da bomb! Mr. Hubby threw it on the grill last night and oh boy!

So there! You have all these options and with the yummy dipping sauce with cilantro, jalapenos and what not, you can't go wrong. Ask the peeps, in my Saturday cooking class - they're still raving!

September 20, 2014

Now here’s a classic Hungarian stew. I’ve been having versions of this since I was a kid always with chicken, never with rabbit.

Speaking of which, this is how we foodies say “we love you” – we gift you ‘bizarre’ foods that make others gawk. Like X’mas when I call everyone and ask if they want some of my duck fat. For a regular, sane person such an offer can be quite offensive. I mean who thinks about getting the gift of duck fat for the holidays?!

My more sane friends have learned to expect such freakish phone calls from me and have learned to accept these with polite grace.

But in my ‘crazy foodie’ world, it would quite an honor followed by “any other organs meats you want to share”? See, bizarre.

So you can quite imagine when I got the gift of rabbit from a friend the other day, it spelled l.o.v.e. Now because it was the whole rabbit and not just the breasts, it seemed to be quite a good choice for stew rather than a lovely French version of duck breasts seared and served with apples or peaches. Yum.

Nope, stew was calling. Since I haven’t fixed Paprikash in so long it’s nearly fallen out of memory, it seemed like the perfect time to revive an old classic.

The ingredient list is so very simple – rabbit or chicken pieces – cut up by the butcher, lots of excellent Hungarian sweet Paprika, sour cream, onions and right there are the foundations of this classic. It may be impossible to imagine but a rich paprika based sauce is quite lovely.

Now I’m not professing this recipe to be some old authentic grandma version but rather it’s the result og some gently tugging on a long lost wisp of memory. I so remember the flavor of this dish as a child, that it was enough to get me going.

Mushrooms are not typical buy I do love them my Paprikash. My kids ate it for the first time, rabbit and all. And thoroughly enjoyed it.

Word of advice, you may want to refrain from the using the term ‘bunny’ while referring to dinner, on the plate, at table.

September 01, 2014

Once in a while, not very often I come across a medley of flavors that makes me sit up and pay attention.

The kind I know that will forever be embedded in my pshyce and onto my taste buds. The refreshing flavors of the cilantro based marinade, the signature tang from the preserved lemons to the briny flavors from the olives does all that and more.

You'll never think of chicken as the same old boring bird and I know I'll love this dish forever - right up there with my love for the likes of pollo pibil.

No way are these dishes related or an are even from the same continent but they transform the humble bird into something exotic and memorable. And how often can one say that?!

Tagine, is my fave version of 'fast food' not so much because it take a jiffy to make but rather, that the ingredients are all piled into one conical mound, fitted with the conical tagine lid and then forgotten on a slow simmer for the next hour. Meanwhile, I'm free to potter around, writing blog posts, watching PBS chat with 'my person' and do a load of laundry.

Yippee! As you can see nothing gets me in a tizzy more than the ability to multi-task through my chores!

As my Aussie-Moroccan friend Yasmine has often reminded me, forget about searing the chicken with skin on the way many western versions of the dish profess. This chook is all about cooking in steam and it's own juices. And nothing worse that all that skin releasing it's fat in a skim layer over the whole dish. Yuck!

So do it the traditional way and get the butcher to skin and joint the chicken for you. The tagine will not only be yummier but also better for you.

Traditionally this dish is served with a mound of fries - yup them greasy French fries which we all love but can't afford to. So I serve mine with Moroccan style taters with a hint of cumin, oven roasted to perfection in the oven which is fab too and much much healthier for us all.

That recipe coming up next. Meanwhile, get this dish on your calendar 30 days from now but begin with preserving your lemonstoday!

August 01, 2014

If all you think of when you think of Arroz Con Pollo is some chicken sauteed with onions, a can of tomatoes thrown in with some chicken and cooked up with rice, then think again.

This Daisy Martinez recipe one I have been following for years with some tweaks of course and it the closest thing to the real deal we'd fill up on in Arizona.

It all begins with making some achiote oil - achiote seeds are pigment red seeds easily and cheaply available in Mexicana grocery stores. The seeds are simmered for a bit in olive oil and the oil develops a marvelous orange hue. The chicken is seared in this lovely oil.

The next step is where most of the pow wow flavor comes from - a large pot of fresh sofrito - anaheim peppers, jalapeno, garlic, tomatoes and cilantro all pulverized in the food processor. The rice is sauteed in this incredible sofrito and truly forms the foundation for the whole dish.

The chicken and rice is cooked in this wonderful base to which some peas and pimento stuffed Manzanilla olives are added. Once the chicken and rice are cooked, strips of roasted red pepper are folded in for yet another spot of color and flavor.

One marvelous meal for the weekend - hearty and delicious! What more do you need to gather around the family table?

July 19, 2014

Pollo Pibil, is a very special age-old dish hailing out of Quintana Roo, in Mexico’s Yucutan region.

What distiguishes this dish from your average chicken dish is the pibil cooking technique.

Meats are marinated, wrapped in banana leaves and placed in pibs; roasting pits buried into the earth and layered with stones and pieces of wood. This wonderful method of cooking the meat in the earth, gives this dish it's classic rustic, earthy flavor while the banana leaves infuse the meats with a lovely freshness, keeping the meat moist, juicy and tender.

Now perched here in my urban kitchen, it's not likely I'm going to be heading to the backyard with a shovel to dig a pit, it's time to take what's traditional and work it to fit my itsy bitsy kitchen.

The challenge is this; cooking the meat in an earthen pit, allows for excess moisture to escape our from the banana leaves into the surrounding earth pit. So what one is left with is all the tenderness without the meat resting in a soupy base.

To counter this, I've got a couple of tricks up my sleeve. First, I'm going to sear the chicken over high heat to get it all brown and crispy getting those lovely browning and flavor molecules to do their thing. Helloo, Maillard reactions!

After that, I'm reducing the amount of liquid traditionally used by half so not to end up in a soupy mess.

There are a couple of things that make pollo pibil pollo pibil and not pollo whatever and that's the nutty, pungent akin to sweet pepper flavor of theachiote/annatto pastewhich is quite literally a brick colored brick! I merrily buy my brick from amazon.com - God bless!

The other is the overnight marination in a sea of citrus. Bitter oranges traditionally but a wowzah combination of lime, orange, grapefruit juices and vinegar does the trick very nicely. All that citrus is 'cooking' the meat, breaking down those proteins as the chicken sits and of course infuses it with a ton of flavor.

Banana leaves can be purchased frozen in any Asian market and defrosted before use. Easy peasy.

So now that you know the why, the what and the who, it's off to the kitchen without further ado!

July 10, 2014

This is one of my favorite chicken dishes to come out of Mexico. Some argue that the sauce is a mole (pronounced mo-lay) that comes out of the Yucatan region and that very well may be the case. I think of it simply as salsa verde.

Quite honestly a sum of two very delicious parts. As humble as it may look, the simple step 1 of cooking the chicken in a pot of water with chopped onions, cilantro & a few other ingredients is key to the intense flavors that follow.

Step 2 is the sauce, the salsa verde. There are different ways this is cooked, some simply sauté the ingredients others like myself, love roasting them.

Whatever you decide to do, the ingredients remain the same – lots of tomatillos, jalapenos and onions tossed with oil and roasted until the tomatillos are blistered. The mixture is then pureed with freshly roasted cumin and fresh cilantro. The result is a deliciously refreshing tangy sauce. The chicken is simmered in for a few final minutes in the salsa verde and served with Mexican rice. Another one of my favorite dishes and recipe to follow soon.

Before you go around thinking that tomatillos are the same as green tomatoes and go buy a whole bunch ( and I can’t blame you for doing so), this green tomato look alike has nothing to do with the family of tomatoes but is actually akin to the nightshade family, related to the cape gooseberry. Go figure!

I buy them in heaps and cheap at the Mexicana grocery store. The same ingredients cost an arm and leg as they are considered ‘exotic’ in a regular grocery store.

February 19, 2014

And it's always been with regard to her expertise in fish preparation. With her ancestral Bangladeshi roots, knowledge about fish and fish preparation goes with the territory. It's where Bengali's prevail! This is a well known fact in India's vast and diverse culinary labyrinth.

What was unknown to me were her 'wicked' meat cooking skills!

My father-in-law has a lot to do with this. You see in first 8 years of our marriage, my father-in-law never ate any kind of meat. Fish and vegetables was the staple. It was only on one of visits after many years did we learn that my father-in-law had once again begun eating meat. This allowed so much more freedom in the kitchen which was like a breathe of fresh air to us carnivorous women!

What makes this chicken unique is the very simple and brilliant use of while spices - whole coriander seeds, an array of ground spices as well as the marinating & stewing the chicken in yogurt. These subtle variations believe it or not brings a whole new dimension to the flavor of the dish which I know you'll appreciate as much as I do.

February 05, 2014

Contadina in Italian means Farmhouse & is such a good name for this dish.

Very rarely does a lemon based dish in any cuisine have such subtle flavors combining the strong acidic flavors from lemon juice with a slight tanginess from diced tomatoes. It goes to show what a great combination of flavors it is.

This dish is an excellent example of good rustic cuisine from Emilia Romagna and is just another reason I so love this cuisine. Though what makes this such a favorite is that the though the cooking from this region truly celebrate meats and pork in particular and can be quite rich, this particular dish leaves one a sense of being light and refreshing.

Fresh herbs like sage, parsley, finely chopped carrots, tomatoes, onions and most importantly lemon zest and lemon juice, the chicken is stewed with all these wonderful ingredients in its own juices.

So perfect with simple mashed potatoes or some rustic bread to sop up the juices. A good salad, a nice wine will complete the meal splendidly!

November 12, 2013

I am embarrassed to say and that I have been meaning to make this stew for over 3 years. What possible reason for it to take that long for me to make this?

I think I'll take a philosophical point of view on this one and say that the time had to be ripe, the planets had to align and so this was the right moment. Oh well!

I will say this though, now that I have made it, I won't stop. It's that good.

With utmost respect for Cordon Bleu, unlike so many of their recipes that are over done (which is the reason I have such respect for Richard Grausman and his books) this one is marvelous - in it's simplicity, in it's flavor - just simply, honest food the way I like it best.

I have omitted 2 steps from the recipe that I thought were unnecessary - 1) I have not double stewed the Savoy cabbage 2) I did not truss the Cornish hens.

I also only ever do the bouquet garni, using the Grausman method (shown below).

Before I get carried away, let me tell you a little something about this stew - large quarters of Savoy cabbage, thick slices of Kielbasa polish sausage, lardons of bacon nestle perfectly moist little Cornish hens. This is achieved by first roasting and then adding the birds to the stew.

The original recipe calls for guinea hens which are much gamier but I could only find Cornish hens which I have substituted here.

What makes this stew unique is that unlike most stews where all the ingredients are cooked together in a big pot and the flavors meld, this stew is a fine representation of palimpsest - a juxtaposition of flavors since each key ingredient - cabbage, bacon, sausage & cornish hens and quickly prepared separately and put together at the very end.

Don't be distressed by what sounds like a lot of work. I usually begin in this stew in the morning for a nice luncheon or a small dinner party or for just for a special family meal. A nice green salad and some crusty bread is all that it takes to finish the meal.

It is great as leftovers the next day which is always welcome with our busy schedule.

October 25, 2013

'Kadhai' cooking is a kind of stir-fry from india. These dishes are originally cooked is round-bottom iron pots in a shape similar to woks but without the handle.

It is believed that Kadhai cooking first originated in Peshawar, Pakistan but is as much a part of
the culinary fabric of North Indian cooking in Punjab as it is in Pakistan.

These dishes are served in the very same pot they are cooked in - from fire to table!

Kadhai gravies are traditionally richly spiced tomato gravies in
which vegetables or meats are cooked at high temperatures to
succulent, tender and delicious perfection.

I warn you, as you go through the recipe, you'll probably think at least once, that I must be fibbing about how great it's going to taste because for 80% percent of it's cooking life it continues to remain a-very-blah-chicken-cooked-in-tomatoes dish.

It's in the last 15 minutes where the dish literally transforms from frumpy to sparkle!

There is one catch though; none of the ingredients should be omitted and you really should take the time to fresh grind the spices and garlic paste.

This will be by far one of the tastiest chicken dishes to grace your dinner table and I would definitely include this in my dinner party menu. Rave reviews are sure to follow!

September 09, 2013

For as long as I can remember, I have always craved my Mum's Murgh Methi.

It is a long tradition which begins with buying bunches of fresh fenugreek leaves with roots intact. I have always known Mum to spread the lot over a newspaper where she would then separate the leafy tips from the stalks, discarding any wilted or brown specimens.

It is a process that is quite time consuming and I would often help as a kid which also encourages long mother-daughter chats over some hot chai.

As I watch her repeat this over some 40 years, I realise that somethings have not changed. She painstainkingly seperates the leaves in preparation for lunch just as she always has. She may be a little slower and in her face I see remnants of the stunningly beautiful woman I remember as a kid. That woman has now given way to an older, graceful and elegant woman she is today.

We're very different in the kitchen - mum and I. She calls me a hurricane. My mum on the other hand never rushes. She does everything with care following the rituals she always has. Watching her cook makes me smile. It reminds me of simpler times when perhaps everything wasn't on a deadline and it was alright to spend a couple of hours slowly in preparation for lunch.

It seems as though in my life, multi-tasking has become second nature. My mother wouldn't dare, especially when it comes to her signature murgh methi.

Make no mistake, she is isn't the only one who makes murgh methi. In fact you'll often find this on restaurant menus and in homes where everything from heavy cream, tomato puree to half the spices from the pantry are emptied into the pot. And the result in my humble opinion, is far from gratifying.

Mum uses none of that. She is a purist and with just a handful of ingredients and her signature technique - slow-slow sauteing, she achieves what I believe is one of her finest contributions to chicken.